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Kalinga and the Transformation of Asoka Odisha Review December - 2015 Kalinga and the Transformation of Asoka Manorama Tripathy It is well known to every student of Indian history Asian Studies, and Patrick Olivelle, Janice that the great Mauryan ruler Asoka invaded Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray brought out Kalinga in the eighth year of his reign. The invasion a volume of essays on Asoka.2 Among the other led to deaths and destruction on a large scale. scholars who have studied Asoka in recent Such a massive human calamity seems to have decades, the names of Romila Thapar, K.R. been unprecedented in Indian history. According Norman, D. Devahuti, John S. Strong, S. Settar, to his thirteenth major rock edict, 100,000 people Harry Falk and Etienne Lamotte stand out. Earlier were killed, 150,000 were carried away as scholars included European pioneers like G. prisoners and many times that number perished. Buhler, Vincent Smith and T.W. Rhys-Davids and This catastrophe brought about a personal Indian luminaries like D.C. Sircar, B.M. Barua transformation in Asoka. His outlook towards and H.C. Raychaudhuri. society, politics and life underwent a deep change, and he became a keen follower of Buddhism and It is rather surprising to note that none of an apostle of peace. According to Pali chronicles these writers have addressed a very fundamental from Sri Lanka, the king transformed from question related to the invasion of Kalinga. The Chandasoka to Dhammasoka.1 invasion of Kalinga was not the first military There is no text book on Indian history adventure of Asoka. He had served as governor or Odisha history which fails to mention this event. of Ujjain and Takshasila under his father Ever since the discovery of his edicts in the Bindusara, before becoming king. During this nineteenth century, Asoka and his Kalinga invasion tenure, he had led military campaigns on many have attracted the attention of historians, writers, occasions. It is also said that the throne of thinkers, scholars specializing on Buddhist studies Magadha did not rightfully belong to him. and religion, nationalists, politicians and others. According to the Pali chronicles, he usurped it Hundreds of books and thousands of articles have after killing his ninety-nine brothers. The figure of been written about Asoka in English, French, ninety-nine is clearly an exaggeration. But the German and several Indian languages. His edicts legend brings to light the fact that before his have been published on many occasions in various transformation in Kalinga, Asoka was certainly books, papers, journals and other periodicals. capable of carrying out aggression and did not Scholarly interest in Asoka has not subsided even shy away from killing. If this is true, what was today. In the year 2012 alone, Upinder Singh really unique about the invasion of Kalinga which published an article on Asoka in the journal South changed his heart? 17 December - 2015 Odisha Review This question can be easily brushed aside in Odisha for the first time? How did it come into on the grounds that the death and destruction existence? What kinds of resources were required caused at Kalinga was far more colossal and for the rise of such a political structure? When devastating than the damages caused by his did Odisha transform from the Neolithic and previous wars. It involved the lives of lakhs of Chalcolithic stage of evolution to the Iron Age? innocent people, as evident from the edicts. When did agricultural production begin to expand This answer is not really convincing. The in such a way that a strong political structure could figures mentioned in the inscription are grossly be established on the basis of the surplus exaggerated. They are meant to inspire awe in generated by agriculture ? None of these the readers and to highlight Asoka’s remorse questions are taken up for discussion in any of 3 through the literary device of hyperbole. The real the available text-books on the history of Odisha. reason behind the king’s repentance must have The Buddhist Tripitaka literature been different. mentions sixteen mahajanapadas which were in Historians generally refer to Asoka’s existence in the sixth century BC. This list does invasion as the battle or war of Kalinga. It is not include Kalinga. Based on this we cannot conventionally dated to the year 261 BC. Many argue that formal political structures had not yet theories have been propounded within Odisha arisen in Odisha at that time. However, it clearly about the precise location of the battle, although indicates that even if they existed, they were not there is no clear evidence in the edicts about it. very powerful to be included in the list of the We have to ask a basic question here. Is there mahajanapadas. The representation of sixteen any evidence in the edicts to show that there was janapadas as mahajanapadas might have had a battle or war of Kalinga? Battles are generally its own political rationale behind it. We must treat fought between two rival parties. Each party may the reference to the mahajanapadas as a consist of a single power or a group of allies. Any representation rather than as a fact. It must also military encounter between the two rivals for a be noted that most of the sixteen mahajanapadas short duration at a specific location is a battle. If mentioned in the Tripitakas were not identified it is protracted and is carried out over a long as territories which can be clearly demarcated, period of time, it is a war. A war need not be but only as tribes. Perhaps the first ever reference fought in the same location. It can be fought at to Kalinga is found in the Baudhayana different places at various times or even Dharmasutra. Here it is stated that after visiting simultaneously in a number of locations. the Kalingas, a person must perform either the rite of punastoma or sarvaprishtha.4This is Who could have been the participant from becausethe Kalingas do not fall in Aryavarta.5It the Kalinga side in this so called war or battle? It is clear here that the name is mentioned in the is difficult to answer this question due to a lack of plural, which shows that the reference is not to a conclusive evidence in any of the existing sources. specific geographical territory, but to the location In any case, the question already presumes that of a tribe. Six other tribes are mentioned along there must have been a state or chiefdom in the with Kalinga, which are Arattas, Karaskaras, Kalinga region at the time of Asoka’s invasion, Pundras, Sauviras, Vangas and Pranunas. The date capable of engaging Asoka in a battle. Was there of the Baudhayana Dharmasutra is not clearly such a state or chiefdom at that time? known. But it is normally dated to the middle of In the existing text-books on Odisha the first millennium BC. It appears from the history, the question of state-formation is not Baudhayana Dharmasutra that a state or addressed. When did a state or chiefdom emerge chiefdom had still not evolved in Odisha at that 18 Odisha Review December - 2015 time. But certain tribal groups of the region, like A well-known urban centre of the period was the Kalingas, were already known to others. Sisupalgarh.7 It was a fortified settlement. Some The exact location and boundaries of historians have surmised that Sisupalgarh was the Kalinga at the time of Asoka’s invasion is not headquarters of Kharavela. We do not know if known. However, it is clear that the frontiers of this is really true. A few other urban centres are the region kept changing from time to time also known from early historical Odisha. The according to the new political and economic recently discovered Radhanagar, near the conditions.6At the time of Asoka, it might have Buddhist site of Langudi on the banks of river been located between the Mahanadi and the Kimiria, seems to be another important early Rushikulya. Dhauli and Jaugada, where Asoka’s historical urban site. edicts are found, fall within this geographical area. On the whole the archaeological evidence In later centuries, the name of Kalinga was usually does not point to the presence of a state in Odisha reserved for the region consisting of the Ganjam at that time. The figures of casualty given by Asoka and Gajapati districts of Odisha and the are extremely amplified. If 100,000 people killed, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam 150,000 carried away as prisoners and many districts of Andhra. times that number who perished were soldiers, The oldest known political lineage of the figures can match those of the Magadhans Odisha is that of Kharavela, who belonged to the who according to Greek writers had a very large Mahameghavahana family of the Chedi clan. army. Had agriculture progressed in Odisha in the Kharavela’s famous Hathigumpha inscription is third century BC to such a great extent that it could found in the Udayagiri caves in Bhubaneswar. In support such a large number of soldiers? This is all fairness to the existing evidence, we must impossible to believe. It is not proven by any concede that no other political family is known to positive evidence. us from Odisha prior to the house to which The existing belief among historians that Kharavela belonged. there was a battle or war of Kalinga is also not All these seem to point to the possibility founded on any clear evidence. The available that a state society had not yet evolved in Odisha historical and archaeological records do not give during Asoka’s time.
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